Anti-Muslim hate crimes increased for the second consecutive year in 2016, according to the latest FBI numbers. During this climate of bigotry, the right-wing media figures used their platforms to blatantly spread fear and misinformation, demonizing Muslims all over the world. Some explicitly called for American Muslims to be put in internment camps, while others denied the existence of Islamophobia in our schools (Islamophobia actually increased in 2016), and claimed that Muslim immigration means more terrorism (there's no connection).

Here is a glimpse of some of the most absurd things the right-wing media figures said about Muslims in 2017.

In a notably hypocritical segment on Fox & Friends, the hosts and their guest, David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, attacked media outlets that called on Christian leaders to denounce white supremacy and the recent violence in Charlottesville, VA. Fox & Friends highlighted articles that notedthat many white evangelical leaders have been silent since white supremacists in Charlottesville attacked counter-protesters on August 12 and that historically many Christians and Christian organizations have enabled systemic racism, from slavery to Jim Crow and into the current era. Co-host Pete Hegseth asked why the articles were “trying to make that link” and “rush[ing] to say” that “pastors or churches … are to blame.” Fellow co-host Abby Huntsman said that “people are pointing fingers” and “you have some journalists that are blaming white Christians.” And Brody claimed that “the fix is in, if you will, against evangelical Christians, white evangelical Christians in this country.”

For years, FoxpersonalitieshavedemandedthatMuslims denounce, apologize, and atone for terrorism committed by ISIS and other Muslim extremist groups, even though Muslim groups have often been quick to criticize and denounce these acts of terror. From the August 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

ABBY HUNTSMAN (CO-HOST): Well, David, after the horrific events on Saturday in Charlottesville, as it always happens, people are pointing fingers, wanting to blame certain groups of people for what happened. And now you have some journalists that are blaming white Christians for these violent attacks. This is a headline from The Daily Beast It says, "Time for all Christians to denounce white supremacy.” The Washington Post says this: "After Charlottesville, will white pastors finally take racism seriously?" And, finally, The Atlantic, "How will the church reckon with Charlottesville?" What's going on here?

DAVID BRODY: Well, look, a couple things. First of all, most evangelical leaders, if not all of them -- I say all of them, obviously, in air quotes -- but most all denounced it, first of all. And true biblical Christianity has nothing to do with white supremacy. It's a lazy narrative by the mainstream media. No doubt about it. Remember, even in the Bible, even Matthew, Jesus talked about how people -- he won't even know people that call themselves Christians. In other words, people that are claiming to be Christians doesn't mean that you are a Christian, and that's very important. These white supremacists like to claim Christianity. Well they can be shown the door. They have nothing to do with true biblical Christianity.

PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): Well why are they trying to make that link then? Why rush to say, "Well, it's the pastors or churches that are to blame for this or should be apologizing for it?”

BRODY: Well, look, I think the fix is in, if you will, against evangelical Christians, white evangelical Christians in this country. And here's what I mean by that. If you are a white evangelical Christian who voted for Donald Trump and who may have some problems with affirmative action policies in this country and want to crack down on illegal immigration, what, all of a sudden you're part of this grand narrative that you're either racist or a bigot? I mean, give me a break. The whole thing is preposterous, and it's time that the church and evangelical leaders really speak out more forcefully about this.

HUNTSMAN: Yeah. You've got to be so careful in lumping groups of people together.

None of the news channels go after Fox News for lieing to the public and disturbing democracy and thus the peace (or the GOP, as I've shown), we watch stuff like this...

On CNN Newsroom with John Berman and Poppy Harlow, CNN contributor Ben Ferguson stated, “If I would have seen these videos … I would have probably tweeted that out and said to myself, ‘This is something the world needs to see.’”

On CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, CNN political commentator Andre Bauer claimed the U.S. has gotten “numb to the continual victimization of American people by people that come over to this country to cause us harm” and praised Trump for “continu[ing] to remind us about it.”

On The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN political commentator and former Trump campaign strategist David Urban dismissed “the notion that somehow we’re radicalizing folks in the rest of the world” through the spread of anti-Muslim propaganda.

On Anderson Cooper 360, panelist James Schultz, who served as White House ethics lawyer under Trump, attempted to defend the president by asserting that “radical Islamic terrorists do bad things.” Schultz claimed, “It’s not the best choice of videos. Without a doubt, they are fake videos. But for you to say [Trump’s] characterizing all Muslims that way, it’s just flat out wrong.”

And on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, CNN political commentator Ed Martin said the series of tweets was “not a very good move,” but that critics of the tweets were “missing the forest for the trees. No one that looks with a serious eye at Europe doesn’t recognize that there is a problem with Muslim and Islamic fanatics.” Martin contended that Trump’s tweets were helping the problem by “starting a conversation.”

CNN’s “both sides” panel structure assumes that every issue has two valid sides, and that often those sides are best defined along partisan lines. In the case of Trump’s tweets, that is patently false. These tweets are bigoted and misleading, and anyone who says otherwise is not being intellectually or morally honest.

By introducing two sides to this debate, CNN is muddying the truth about these videos. Given that we now live in an age where the president often takes his cues from what he sees on cable news, CNN’s “both sides” strategy is irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): There is nothing actually fascist about re-tweeting a video but there is creeping fascism out there. It’s the steady death of free speech in the West. Jayda Fransen has been repeatedly been punished by British authorities for saying what she thinks out loud. That used to be legal. She’s been banned from at least one English city for handing out anti-Islamic literature there on the grounds that her opinion caused quote, “community tension.”

[…]

Fransen is being targeted by authorities because her views are unpopular. You would think this would horrify reporters here in the U.S., you would think they would have an interest in defending free speech but no, instead as you just heard they are citing her arrest as evidence that her views ought to be suppressed. She is a quote, a “hate speech person.” She ought to shut up and disappear, guardians of the First Amendment cheering on its destruction. That is terrifying but it’s not confined to Britain. Throughout the U.K. and Western Europe and in Canada too by the way, citizens have been arrested for expressing political views the authorities don’t like.

[…]

The civilization that gave us free speech, the West, has suspended the concept because it conflicts with the diversity agenda. That seems like the real story here.

NBCNews.com reported that three of Spencer’s apparent neo-Nazi supporters -- Tyler Tenbrink, William Fears, and Colton Fears -- were arrested outside of Spencer’s speech, after one of them fired “one shot, which hit a nearby building” after the others in the car urged him “to shoot at the protesters.” NBC News also noted that the supporters “displayed Nazi salutes and shouted chants about Hitler.”

Across the three cable networks, MSNBC’s AM Joy was the only program that mentioned that the Spencer supporters were arrested after they “literally fired shots at anti-fascist protesters.” During the segment, ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson noted that he had interviewed Tenbrink after his involvement in the Charlottesville rally, and that Tenbrink told Thompson, “‘I hate the leftists. The leftists are evil. They’re bringing degeneracy to our country. … I’m fighting against multiculturalism, the press of multiculturalism on Western society, and I’m fighting for my children.’” Thompson added, “Fast forward to this week, he shows up in Florida at the Richard Spencer event, and according to police, opens fire on counterprotesters with a handgun.”

Terrorism perpetrated by right-wing extremists and white nationalists is often undercovered in the media. When the Trump administration released a list of supposed “underreported” terror attacks, it neglected to include numerous instances of terror and killings committed by white nationalists. In fact, white extremists are currently more dangerous than other extremist groups in the United States. As Foreign Policyreported in August, “the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in May warned that white supremacist groups had already carried out more attacks than any other domestic extremist group over the past 16 years and were likely to carry out more attacks over the next year”

JAMES ROSEN (GUEST HOST): We may be tempted to believe that we've seen this movie before in terms of a push for gun control after some horrific mass shooting like this. Is this going to end the same way?

MARA LIASSON: I think so. If after Sandy Hook, when you had all those little kids gunned down there was no push or no receptivebility for gun control in the U.S. Congress. I would say this will probably meet the same fate. However, Donald Trump has made policy prescriptions, you could call that politicizing right after other mass shootings, generally if they were committed by a Muslim, he said this shows we need the Muslim ban. So there is precedent for talking about a policy solution after a mass shooting.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Tell us what happened. You sent this letter to the Muslim Student Association?

BRANDON JONES: Yeah. So, I sent them a letter just simply asking them to condemn the violence that happened in Barcelona, and, boy, did they flip out.

EARHARDT: What's wrong with that?

JONES: Well, the funny thing is that they're more worried about a letter that I wrote than they are about radical Islamic terrorism.

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): You know what's amazing? You shouldn't even have had to write that letter. They should have stepped out right away to say that's the terror part of Islamic extremism, and we are not that. But instead you got a violent reaction?

JONES: Yeah. I got a couple threats via text message and phone calls basically saying that I better watch my back and that I've turned the campus into a war zone.

EARHARDT: Well, in this day and age, you're very brave not only to come on national television and talk about it, but you sent a letter and I understand your phone number was attached to that letter and that letter was made public. Why do you think it's so important to come out publicly?

JONES: I think it's important to come out publicly because really what it did was it just kind of exposed the left-wing indoctrination that conservative students are battling on college campuses. And, so, for us to come out, and for me and my team to stand on the front lines and combat that, that's really what we're about.

KILMEADE: The Young Democrat Socialists call you -- call this letter cruel and bigoted.

JONES: Yeah, the socialists -- anything with the name "socialist" in it, I don't really pay too much attention to.

KILMEADE: Bernie Sanders somehow just passed out wherever he is.

[...]

[San Diego State University] say they’re going to provide for your safety. Do you feel as though the school has stepped up for you?

JONES: I do think -- I will say that the university reached out and gave me a phone call. The dean of students there, Corporal Peterson, they have made sure I have the necessary resources available. But we are definitely watching our backs on campus. There's been a target put on my back. There's been a target put on all of our members' backs.

In the wake of a vehicle attack in New York City that left at least eight dead and 11 injured, Fox News’ prime-time shows dusted off their playbook for analyzing apparent terror incidents by turning to a series of renowned anti-Muslim activists for commentary and insight.

According to The New York Times, on October 31, a man driving a rented pickup truck sped down a designated bike path in lower Manhattan, killing at least eight people and injuring at least 11 others. After striking a school bus, the driver of the vehicle was shot and apprehended by authorities.

In its virtually wall-to-wall coverage of the attack, Fox News hosted a series of hate group leaders and disreputable guests who have histories of making inflammatory and anti-Muslim comments, including Brigitte Gabriel, Pamela Geller, Sebastian Gorka, and Zuhdi Jasser. Viewers who tuned in to Fox to learn about what happened in New York City saw self-described “terrorism analyst” Gabriel scapegoating refugees as a threat to national security:

Meanwhile, Geller said on Hannity that “a rational response” to such an attack would be to “stop certain Muslim immigration from jihad nations”:

Gorka, who was also a guest on Hannity, claimed that the phrase “lone wolf” was “invented” and “made popular by the Obama administration to make Americans disconnect the dots” on terrorism:

And Jasser asserted on Tucker Carlson Tonight that Americans “are in denial if we don’t believe that nonviolent Islamism is a precursor to militant Islamism”:

The horrid massacre in Las Vegas, NV, in which a shooter killed at least 58 people and injured hundreds, has turned message board users and right-wing internet trolls into do-it-yourself (DIY) sleuths attempting to solve the crime themselves. Their investigations, based on leaked photos or unconfirmed gossip, have resulted in wild conspiracy theories that would be laughable if prominent right-wing media figures -- ranging from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to Fox News’ newest prime-time host, Laura Ingraham -- weren’t amplifying the wannabe-gumshoes’ voices in an unscrupulous effort to exploit the tragedy to their political advantage.

Previously, DIY investigative attempts of this sort have ended badly. When an attacker drove a car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville, VA, “alt-right” media personalities accused the wrong person of committing the attack. And when pro-Trump trollspushed the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C., was a front for a ring of pedophiles, a gunman from North Carolina drove to D.C. to investigate the matter and fired shots inside the restaurant.

For opportunistic pro-Trump trolls, the incentive to push wacky conspiracy theories is the same as their reason for committing other sophomoric, attention-grabbing stunts: to gain notoriety, grow their platform by amassing social media followers, and make an income by asking for donations in support of their efforts. Such is the case for Laura Loomer, formerly linked to the Canadian outlet The Rebel. Loomer has been one of the most prominent pusher of conspiracy theories regarding the shooting in Las Vegas and is asking for monetary support to continue her “investigative journalism.” Her journalistic portfolio includes disrupting a Shakespeare play in New York City, harassing journalists, and heckling former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with the asinine Seth Rich conspiracy theory.

Recently, Loomer has relentlessly tweeted wide-ranging and baseless speculation about the Las Vegas massacre. She has implied that the CEO of MGM Resorts, which owns the Mandalay Bay hotel from where the attacker opened gunfire on the crowds below, was somehow involved in the tragedy, has claimed MGM’s union gave its members 10 weeks of paid vacation during Clinton’s presidential campaign, and has doggedly attempted to link the shooter to Islamic extremism, all in efforts to cast doubts over the available facts about the tragedy and push a “deep state” conspiracy theory. Kindred spirit Alex Jones enthusiastically elevated her moronic speculation by inviting her on his Infowars show.

It is becoming unfortunately common for attention-seeking trolls to push politicized conspiracy theories after events of national importance. They deliberately amplify these narratives in order to “muddy the conversation,” as Snopes’ Brooke Binkowski told The Guardian. And many stars of right-wing media are proving to be no better.

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): As you may have heard, over the weekend, a deranged man in the state of Oregon called Jeremy Christian began berating Muslims on a train, and when three men approached to intervene, he stabbed two of them to death. It was an atrocity, but it was only the first of many in the story.

Almost immediately after it happened, the press scrambled to define what exactly had happened. Right wing, white supremacist commits murder, provoked by Trump's climate of hate, or maybe climate of fear, maybe both.

Fake civil rights groups like the Center for Islamic Relations and the Southnern Poverty Law Center jumped onboard immediately, blaming President Trump's rhetoric.

[...]

The accused killer was not a Trump voter, he actually backed Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 race and indeed called for violent attacks on Trump supporters during the election. A video from the day before the stabbing shows him denouncing not just Muslims, but also, Jews and Christians. And in a Facebook posting from last June, he attacked Hillary Clinton for allegedly keeping Honduran refugees out of this country. Hardly the behavior of a coherent white supremacist.

At the alt-right rally, supposedly attended in April, he was apparently there to pick fights with everyone, whether they loved trump or hated him. Once you dig a little, you find this guy wasn't a right-winger, but an unstable maniac who hated almost everybody, and maybe inevitably was going to lash out at some point, but don't tell that tot the media, though. Like progressives everywhere, they see racists under every bed.

Same pattern has been used before to protect white supremacists and right wing terrorists by Fox...

IN THE NAME OF THE FODDER 7/27/2011The Fox News rapid-response team distinguishes violence in the name of a religion from the practitioners of that religion -- as long as it's Christianity.

Quotes

"Make peace with the universe. Take joy in it. It will turn to gold. Resurrection will be now. Every moment, a new beauty." - Rumi

"God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that." - Joseph Campbell

"Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so. How often have we not seen the truth condemned! It is sad but unfortunately true that man learns nothing from history." - Carl Jung

"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society." - George Washington

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” - Dalai Lama

“Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison. When the door is so wide open?” ― Rumi